MBS International Airport deputy on 9/11: 'Nobody knew what was happening'

Barrie Barber | The Saginaw NewsSaginaw County Sheriff's Department Deputy Timothy Crane started his assignment at MBS International Airport since just before the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C.

But the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, was different at his post at MBS International Airport.

Terrorists had hijacked four commercial jetliners flying out of the East Coast. Two crashed into the World Trade Center in Manhattan. A third slammed like a missile into the Pentagon. And the final jet dove into a Pennsylvania field as passengers fought the hijackers to prevent an attack on the White House or the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

The attacks, linked to the terrorist group al-Qaida and its former leader Osama bin Laden, took the lives of nearly 3,000 people.

At first, Crane said, “nobody was really sure what was happening.”

Television monitors showed the smoking Twin Towers, which later would collapse in a vertical dive before a shocked nation.

Soon, the federal government would order a days-long grounding of all private and commercial aircraft in the skies above the United States.

And MBS would grind to a halt.

“They ceased operations on that day,” he said.

Crane, 51, said some stranded or trapped travelers rented cars to get to where they need to go. “Everybody, obviously, was a little more aware and apprehensive about flying,” he said.

When flights resumed, just as at other airports across the nation, Army National Guard soldiers temporarily set up a checkpoint at MBS and vehicles were banned from parking near the entrance.

Security has changed at MBS since that day a decade ago, but Crane declined to talk about how. He walks a patrol through the passenger terminal, looking for unattended baggage, and keeps an eye on the parking lot.

“We’re basically here to maintain a high visibility,” he said. “We have a lot of people who come through here in the course of a day.”

As fliers know well, passengers are more thoroughly screened since the day terrorists used box cutters as weapons to take over the planes.

Transportation Security Administration agents now tell air travelers to remove shoes and belts, and place laptop computers on conveyor belts while passengers walk through full-body scanners, which have drawn complaints nationally of intrusiveness.

Flying rules now dictate what passengers can fly with, and how much, such as the size of toothpaste tubes and shampoo bottles, in the new normal in the post-9/11 era.

Part of what Crane does is support the TSA’s mission. “We’re here in a law enforcement capacity to help them or assist them,” he said.